A very controlling list...but also funny. I think in general it can be difficult with restrictions. Luckily I did not find any that I overuse here...but I do have quite a few! My most overused word is probably: Fabulous...Have a great day!

Such an awesome list. I love reading "City" magazines like NY Mag and Seattle Met, but they have a very particular and totally annoying vernacular that really tests my patience sometimes. This guy is smart to tone it down.

There are certainly a few words on the list I wouldn't use, and don't particularly like ("flicks" and "celeb" for instance), but most of these words are absolutely fine, if sometimes overused article words! To each her own, I suppose. Fittingly, I hate the term "pet peeve."

I'll have to agree with hubby, preggers/prego, and bestie. I also have a hard time when couples call each other "honey". I'm from the south, so if it isn't said with a southern accent and while someone is handing me fried chicken and a biscuit through the car window, it just seems weird. And overly formal.However, I love that my husband (who is not from the south) calls me "darlin". ;)

My absolute most hated word is "moot." My dad used it relentlessly whenever we would argue when I was a teenager, as in, "that's a MOOT point," to any argument I made in my favor. Eventually I think he realized that I really just hated that word so then he'd use it even if I was right just to watch me blow up. The word is banned from my husband and I's vocabulary, which he has been more than happy to comply with except when he wants to tease me. :)

i hate the word "fart." we do not say it in my house as my mother never allowed it. and YES! people read quotations, or they quote people. get it right! i hate when people say "standing O" for standing ovation. it sounds dirty. panties is also gross. some of my faves are lattice, shrubery and satchel. i just like saying them.

i am thinking that i now need to make a list. a few of mine are...ending of any exclamatory sentence with babbbyyy or yo (for example: new york city baby!) hubsintentional (ie. doing anything 'intentionally')i could go on and on...

Haha, that's cool :-D Seeing how I blog in my non-native language, it sometimes is hard for me to figure out which words go with the common "Zeitgeist" (you're welcome) and which do not. Zeitgeist is a German word, btw, and is not out of fashion in its home country, although I can understand why it is in the US :-) So I did use one or the other of the words on the list, mostly because I'd read them somewhere and they popped up in my head while writing. I bet my writing style seems odd to people at times. My boyfriend asked me why I don't ask my readers about that, but I don't know. It seems kinda strange to me ^^

This is AWESOME. I'm afraid if I made a list like this it would be many pages long. But let me just add my number one pet peeve: when people say "nukular". It kills me. Say it with me news anchors- N U C L E A R. Oy.

Can I share buzzwords in SF now... artisan, purveyor, organic, local -- I used to love how it meant something was "special" now it's all over the place and starting to sound blah. I wonder what word replacements are out there?

there are a few local phrases and words that make me sick (i am not from the city i live in): using 'honestly' as a qualifier, for anything; 'random'--i agree with Christen above. all of the sudden everything is 'random'. i also can't stand the people around here who say 'granted' before everything. a lot of times they don't know what they are talking about and i've caught people saying--and even WRITING-- 'granite'. embarrassing. also, can you even believe that people use the term 'eternal companion' for their spouse?

Hahaha. Sport as a verb. Agreed. Also hate "moist." Do all women hate that word? Also don't like "muah" (a kiss). Don't know if that's a word, but it really ticks me off when people either say it or write it.alexa

Actually, I have to agree with most of the words on the list. I'd also like to add "gifted," as in "I was gifted this vase." Is it even an actual word? What's wrong with the verb "to give" in all its forms? It's a good verb. Use it! Also hate "totes" instead of "totally" and all the people who throw around "hipster" far too often. Also hate the slang "nom," as in delicious.

Love it! Can I add a couple that I've seen on cutesy blogs lately? Presh, as is precious, Gorg, as in Gorgeous, Adorbs, as in Adorable, Siggy, as in signature! I'm horrified that people would say, much less type those! :)

I tend to dislike words based on its typographic characteristics. Letters with ascenders and descenders (i.e., p, q, b, d) can make an entire word seem unbalanced. The words 'here' and 'blog' are on my list of words I do my best to steer clear from.

We have a casual list at my work-"in reality", "top-notch", "ironic" used incorrectly..I'm blanking on the rest. I love everyone's comments though. Personally I hate the "random" fad. Everything cannot be that random people. And "totes", as in totally, "boss" as in one guy says to another, "what up boss". Ah can't stand it. I remember when I was little my Dad hated that we said "awesome". He would tell us that awesome should be reserved for things that actually inspire awe. Poor Dad.

Glad to see someone else on here said my most hated word: panties. I cannot even say it, I cringe typing it. You're telling me women wear little pants? Ick! And, btw, is everyone meaning to say they don't like the word pus (as in the fluid) or puss (as in "in boots")?

I agree with most of these too! "Hubby" is one of my top 5 most annoying words and I'll have to agree with The Yellow Door Paperie and her office - two of my favorite words are also "coffee" and "vacation". ;)

I have to second the literally business. I have a pretty high tolerance for annoying words, and will confess to a tendency to use "Just saying" way, way, waaaaay more than anyone should, but literally? Do you people know what literally means?

I hate the word Pulsating, and Pubic. They are both totally disgusting. As well as my boyfriend tends to say words like, "squalor" instead of poor or dirty. I don't know why, but it makes me want to punch him.

One term of any English class (in which students are encouraged to speak) is enough to make me never want to hear the word "juxtapose" ever again! I did need to use it recently for a formal analysis I was writing, but I had to think about it long and hard before I was willing to let it happen.

I love this! And I'm totally with you on the "moist" front. It is only acceptable when speaking of baked goods, and even then... Oh, and Lindley's word too - "bestie" is the most ridiculous word and makes me cringe.

I'm a grant writer for a non-profit, so I spend much of my life trying to simplify other people's writing. My least favorites are utilize (what's wrong with use?!) and capacitate (sounds too much like decapitate). I also think that people overuse 'however' and 'therefore'. Those words are okay as an occasional pause, but they are largely unnecessary.

My most hated phrase that appears on a lot of blogs is 'le sigh'. Why do people think it is cute to sigh with a fake French accent?

Finally, while I also dislike the words moist and panties, my least favorite word to hear is 'ma'am'. I know that it is considered polite in a lot of places, but just makes me feel old.

I cannot stand the word mustard. I know it's weird. I mean it's fine if someone says something about putting it on their food, but if someone uses it like a color it drives me crazy. Example: "I like that mustard color sweater you were wearing yesterday."

i can agree with "hubby". sounds gross, like some huge couch potato husband. no thanks! i think i just dislike it when people say words wrong - example: "lifes" (for lives), and "supposively" (for supposedly). drives me CRAZY! but i am a lit/grammar nerd. :)

I just hate most abbreviations, it makes people sound immature and uneducated. It really does not take that much longer to write husband rather than hubby...and it's really not cute. Also, "nom nom nom" - I don't get it, people don't make any sound remotely resembling that while eating.

love the pop/soda comment! when i was in college i took an overseas trip in which there were only 3 of us from the west coast and the rest were from the east. in order to fit in i switched from saying "pop" to "soda" and i've never turned back ;)sometimes peer pressure is a good thing. i like saying soda so much better.

I LIKE words!! And there's so many unknown subjects that can come up, and so many flavorful ways you can use them! I don't think you should ever limit them...except if they're just being used as filler and haven't been thought threw. Go words! Go words!! ^_^

These may also be British work-words (or maybe just my work) face time = meeting someone in person, "I'll get some face time with them"Diary as a verb "let's diary that"carpark as a verb to mean let's come back to that "let's carpark that idea".

Also British phrases I hate (as Meghan said) under the cosh, also kibosh and awry.

I also hate when people don't understand acronyms and mis use them, like Broadband MAC code. The C in MAC already stands for code. Grrrr

Oh crap. I've used two of these words, in particular. I'm afraid to write anything now... kind of freaking me out. BUT, if I may add to the list-> preggers/preggo/pregs (they all just remind me of marinara sauce), inked and tats.Now to crack out the thesaurus and find a replacement for the words, "well" and ,"don" (though, in my defense, I've only used that one a few times, so far, in the span of my lifetime.)I suppose these are very good examples of trying to be too clever!

I guess I shouldn't tell this man about the time I donned my fin de siecle, comely chapeau and graced one of New York's Finest Eateries with my presence, along with my hubby? As a duo we ate comfort food and dubbed the restaurant an indie bistro: I intoned (lifestyle maven that I am) that it couldn't have been a better meal if it had hailed from Zagat's overly starred best-of book!!

We even saw a few bigs eating there - a veritable who's who of celeb faces!!

This is so funny to read! I really don't have any words that I hate... I do have phrases though. Around here a lot people say "get off the car" instead of "get out of the car." You're not "on" the car you're "in" the car, therefore, you need to get "out"

Oh hey, I just remembered a word I hate. As an artist, I hate it when people use the word "draw-er" instead of "artist." Like, "Wow, you're such a good drawer!" It just sounds so juvenile, I don't even think it's a real word!

@Sarathira - I have a theory on the word "Boo." I think maybe its a derivative of the word "beau" which means boyfriend but is also another word for admirer, beloved, love, lover... yeah I know, I'm a little brainy :/

The word "folks" bothers me. I always feel like I need to pronounce the "L." I also do not like it when a person refers to a large group of people as "guys." Whatever happened to "ladies and gentlemen"? That may be a little to formal, but I hate feeling like I'm an unruly middle-schooler. Another word that drives me crazy is the word "like." It is used far too often.

My favorite word: Onomatopoeia. I don't get to use it often, but it rolls off the tongue wonderfully. The four vowels at the ends also make it special.

Zeitgeist!! NOOOOOO! That's one of the funest words to say! I first learned it when I was going to college for music. It means "rythem ghost" in German.It does seem to be used in all sorts of odd ways lately. But its still darn fun to say!

Oh, I so agree about the word gelatinous! ICK! Also dislike the use of the word "Cheers", especially by my brother who signs his Christmas letter (those are two cringe worthy words themselves) and many e-mails with it. He doesn't drink AND he's not British, so I don't think he's authorized to use it! :)

"Hipster," obviously. But there is no other word for it, and sorry people, it IS a type. (PS--It's so weird to see this list on my wife's blog, all these years later. I was on staff at New York Magazine under Kurt, and that very memo hung over my desk for two years. It's burned into my memory).